Eileen's Aloo Gobi Fail…Curry Win

We have the best friends in the entire world. Sincerely. Eileen and Aimee are new friends from our paleo community. Earlier this month I sent out a pleading cry for help from friends to guest blog on the site. We’re swamped with book stuff, the holidays were in full blast and the vow renewal planning is a full time job in itself. Right around this time I was trying Eileen’s curry at our holiday paleo potluck, I begged her for the recipe. We love curries and this one in particular had the perfect sweet, savory and spicy balance. I was thrilled when she agreed and sent the recipe in my mailbox late last week! And then I realized it had yams. *Curses*

This is by all accounts a perfect paleo extremely healthful dish… but we couldn’t eat it. We’re (sadly) not eating yams because of the 21 Day Sugar Detox. So I didn’t want to make it (for photographs) only to be tempted. That’s where my other awesome friend, Aimee Buxton, came to my rescue. A fantastic photographer (visit her site!), I thought she might be able to do some magic with this recipe. And magic she did! If this is what she can do with food, I can’t wait to see what our family photo shoot is going to look like after a day with her! If you’re impressed, you’re in luck… because Aimee and I are cooking up a giveaway for the site soon! Let us know what you’d love to have from such a talented lady and your wish just might come true!

Aimee & Eileen, I can’t thank you enough for offering this team effort post to the site. I sincerely believe this will warm the bellies of many happy families! Without further ado, here’s Eileen’s curry recipe (adapted) and Aimee’s gorgeous pictures and her kids (Finn’s got a crush on Aimee’s daughter, can you blame him?!) enjoying it!

 

This summer I spent a few weeks in Japan and realized something: I absolutely love curry.  Sure, Japan may be known for it’s sushi, which is indeed spectacular, but there are quite a few take-out and sit-in restaurants that make some ridiculously good Thai, Indian, and Japanese style curries.  Since then, I’d been messing around with curry recipes but hadn’t come across anything spectacular until recently, when I attempted a Paleo Aloo Gobi recipe preparing for the DC Meat Up/Paleo Parents holiday potluck.

Now for a little shout out to the power of paleo…or primal…or whatever you may call eating consciously and steering clear of sugar, grains, and processed foods.  Prior to making the switch, I was a total wimp when it came to spicy food.  We’re talking mild salsa was a bit much and medium shrimp sauce was, well, holy hotness!  Fortunately, two years ago I was talked into trying out the paleo thing by a friend and found not only did my chronic heartburn disappear, but my spicy tolerance skyrocketed.  So began my stockpiling of hot sauces, spices and peppers.  Come check out my freezer and you’ll find bags of cayenne peppers set aside for the upcoming cold winter months in which I’ll be warming my apartment by the heat of curry, chili and other delightfully spicy dishes.

I really can’t get enough of the hot stuff, which is why I was psyched when I came across a link to the aloo gobi recipe on Mark’s Daily Apple.  I’d like to think I can follow directions pretty well–my entire living room is from IKEA–but I managed to screw this one up a bit because aloo gobi should come out with cauliflower and sweet potatoes still relatively in-tact and mine came out a total mush. However, I found said mush to be incredibly delicious and decided to stick with it, thinking of it as the curry with cauliflower rice I had been searching for all my life, or at least the past four months.

Inspired by Juli’s original recipe, I added more chicken and cinnamon, replaced the sweet potato with a yam (personal habit) and added some cardamom.  I’ve recently become obsessed with adding cinnamon and cardamom to everything…burgers…stews…anything related to dessert.  Cardamom has a similar taste to ginger and while it is one of the pricier spices in the spice rack, it’s totally worth the cost. Sprinkle a pinch of each over a few pieces of dark chocolate, pop it in the microwave for 25 seconds, dunk in some blueberries or strawberries and enjoy your trip to heaven.

The key to this recipe, and also my original mistake, is letting everything simmer until your cauliflower and yams are soft and stir into a delicious paste.  The clutch time is around 30 minutes after everything has been thrown into a big pot.  With prep and cooking time, this recipe takes around one hour to make. Enjoy!

Ingredients

3 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp coconut oil
1 14 oz can coconut milk
1 Tbsp curry powder
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
½ tsp red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper flakes (I used about ¾ tsp cayenne pepper flakes for a little extra zing)
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp garam masala
1 head cauliflower, chopped
1 medium yam or 2 small yams
1lb chicken, cubed
2 Tbsp almond butter
Salt and pepper to taste
½ tsp cardamom

Instructions

  1. Set a large pot over medium heat and add coconut oil and minced garlic.
  2. After you can smell the garlic/coconut oil mixture…when your mouth starts watering…add the coconut milk, curry powder, cumin, coriander, red pepper flakes, cinnamon, and garam masala and let simmer for 5 minutes.
  3. Add yams and cauliflower to the coconut milk mixture and let simmer for 5 to 10 minutes or however long it takes you to chop up your chicken.
  4. Add chicken, almond butter, cardamom, salt and pepper and let simmer for 30 minutes or until the yams and cauliflower are soft and mushy.
  5. Stir everything together.  Once you have a nice, curry-like consistency let it cool down a bit before devouring.

Photo credit: Aimee Buxton Photography

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